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WASHINGTON'S 
HEADQUARTERS 



NEW YORK 



A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY 
OF THE MORRIS MANSION 
(OR JUMEL MANSION) IN 
THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 
USED BY WASHINGTON AS 
HIS HEADQUARTERS IN 1776 

BY 

REGINALD PELHAM BOLTON 



Published by 

The American Scenic and Historic 

Preservation Society 

New York, 1903 



Ube Hmericaii 
Scenic auD Ibistoric preservation Socteti? 

Prestutnt 

Hon. Andrew H. Green . . . 214 Broadway, New York 

Frederick W. Devoe Walter S. Logan 

Hon. Charles S. Francis J. Pierpont Morgan 

Edward Payson Conk . ' . 314 \V. 90th Street, New York 

Counsel 

Col. Henry W. Sackett . . Tribune Building, New York 

Samuel Parsons, Jr 1 133 Broadway, New York 

Edward Hagaman Hall . . Tribune Buildin<r, New York 

Samuel P. Averv Walter S. Logan 

Prof. L. H. Bailey J. Pierpont Morgan 

Reginald Pllham Bolton Ira K. Morris 

H. K. Bush-Brown ^L Sexton Northrup 

Edward Payson Cone John Hudson Peck 

Richard T. Davies Mrs. M. F. Peirce 

Frederick W. Devoe Hon. George W. Perkins 

Hon. Charles S. Francis Edward T, Potter 

Hon, Robert L. Fryer Thomas R. Proctor 

Hon. Andrew H. Green William H. Russell 

Henry E. Gregory Col. Henry W. Sackett 

Francis Whiting Halsey Albert Ulmann 

Hon. Hugh Hastings Hon. WxM. Van Valkenburgh 

Edward P. Hatch Hon. Thomas V. Welch 

George F. Kunz Mornay Williams 

Frederick S. Lamb Charles F. Wingate 

Hon. Francis G. Landon Frank S. Witherbee 



WASHINGTON'S 
HEADQUARTERS 



NEW YORK 



A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY 
OF THE MORRIS MANSION 
(OR JUMEL MANSION) IN 
THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 
USED BY V/ASHINGTON AS 
HIS HEADQUARTERS IN 1776 

FY ; • . ;. ; ' . >, ; 

REG-INALD PELHAM * BOLTON 



Published by 

The American Scenic and Historic 

Preservation Society 

New York, 1903 



CONTENTS 



Introduction . 

I. The Dutch and English Landowner of 
upper Manhattan Prior to 1756 

II. The Roger Morris Mansion, 1756-1776 

III. Washington's Headquarters, 1776 

IV. British Headquarters, 1776-1783 
V. Hostelry and Farmer's Home, 1783-1810 

VI. The Stephen Jumel Mansion, 1810-1865 

VII. Earlecliff, 1894-1903, and its Landowners 
since 1691. 



Stuart's Portrait of Washington . 
Washington's Headquarters 
Map of Proposed Public Park 



PAGE 

3 

7 

13 
17 
25 
29 



Frontispiece 

Opposite page 17 

Pages 20-21 



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Introduction. 



With the destruction by fire in 1902 of the old Century 
House, which stood on the west shore of the Harlem 
River, about on the line of what would be 213th street, 
and with the demolition of the old Martyrs' Prison or 
Hall of Records in City Hall Park in March, 1903, there 
remain on Manhattan Island only three notable archi- 
tectural relics of the Colonial period. 

The oldest of these is Fraunces' Tavern, at Pearl and 
Broad streets, in which Washington bade farewell to his 
officers December 4, 1783. It was built in the early 
Tyco's. Chiefly through the efforts of the American 
Scenic and Historic Preservation Society and its 
Women's Auxiliary, the Board of Aldermen passed an 
ordinance January 27, 1903, to create a public park for 
the purpose of preserving this building. Its safety is 
thus assured. 

The youngest of the three is St. Paul's Chapel, at 
Broadway and Vesey streets, the cornerstone of which 
was laid in 1764. This edifice, the property of Trinity 
Church Corporation, has fortunately been preserved in 
architecture practically as it was when the subjects of 
George II and George III worshipped in it before the 
Revolution, and when Washington and his contempo- 
raries worshipped in it afterwards. The public has no 
apprehensions concerning the future of this edifice. 



Between these two, in order of erection, is the so- 
called Morris or Jumel Mansion, situated between 1626. 
street, Edgecomb avenue, i6oth street and Jumel Terrace, 
which was Washington's headquarters in 1776. It was 
begun in 1756 and finished in 1758. Realizing that 
under private ownership this beautiful specimen of 
classic colonial architecture and interesting historical 
building was not safe from the vicissitudes of fortune, 
the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 
in conjunction with its Women's Auxiliary and other 
historical and patriotic organizations, has made an 
earnest effort to secure municipal ownership of the 
mansion and the land upon which it stands. This 
effort would have been successful ere this but for a 
legal technicality. On March 6, 1901, the Board of 
Public Improvements approved and recommended to 
the Municipal Assembly an ordinance for " laying out a 
public park on the land bounded by Edgecomb road, 
West One Hundred and Sixtieth street, Jumel terrace, 
and West One Hundred and Sixty-second street, in the 
Twelfth ward, Borough of Manhattan, City of New 
York." On December 17th the Municipal Council 
adopted the ordinance, and on December 31st the 
Board of Aldermen adopted it in concurrence. On 
January i, 1902, a new municipal administration came 
into office under an amended city charter, and when 
this ordinance, with others, came before the new mayor, 
the Hon. Seth Low, for consideration, he felt con- 
strained by the advice of the Corporation Counsel, to 
withhold his approval, as stated in the following letter : 



" City of New York, 
** Office of the Mayor, January i6, 1902. 

'' E. H. Hall, Esq., Secretary American Scenic and His- 
toric Preservation Society, Tribune Building, Park Row, 
City: 

" Dear Sir — Referring to your letter of the 2d inst., 
the Mayor asks me to say that the ordinance to lay out 
a public park in the Twelfth ward, borough of Manhat- 
tan, to which you referred, was sent to the Board of 
Aldermen yesterday without the Mayor's approval; 
because, under an opinion of the corporation counsel 
affecting all of the ordinances adopted by the municipal 
assembly on the last day of the year, it seemed safer to 
allow the matters to come up anew. This disapproval 
was, of course, based upon a technicality in the law, and 
not upon the merits, and the Mayor will be glad to con- 
sider the matter upon the merits if it comes before him 
again. 

" Very truly yours, 

'' JAMES B. REYNOLDS, 

*' Secretary'* 

The recent death of the occupant. Gen. Ferdinand 
P. Earle, and the prospective change of ownership, 
make it eminently desirable that the building should be 
taken under municipal care at once and its security and 
integrity as one of the notable antiquities of the city 
established beyond further doubt. Such action will 
give effect to the intention of the Municipal Govern- 
ment expressed in the ordinance of December, 1901, 
which was evoked by a strong public sentiment and 
against the merits of which not a single voice was raised 
in opposition. 

New York, April 19, 1903. 



References. 



J. F. Mines. A Tour Around New York. 

Riker's Harlem ; Its Origin and Early Annals. 

Abstract Title Property of Holyrood Church. 

Johnstone's History of the Battle of Harlem Heights. 

Magazine of American History, Vols. IV to VII. 

Heath's Memoirs. 

Force's American Archives. V. 4th Series. 

Fort Washington. Empire State Soc. S. A. R. 

Graydon's Memoirs. 

Diary of Lt. Charles Philip von Kraaft. N. Y. Hist'l Soc'y. 

Diary of iGeorge Washington. 

Abstract of Title of Part of Jumel Property. Mr. W. H. Flitner 



WASHINGTON'S 
HEADQUARTERS 

NEW YORK CITY 



THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH LANDOWNERS OF 
UPPER MANHATTAN PRIOR TO 1756 

STANDING upon a commanding eminence, between 
1626. street, Edgecomb avenue, i6oth street and 
Jumel Terrace, in the Borough of Manhattan, New York 
City, is a beautiful specimen of classic colonial archi- 
tecture, built as a family mansion in 1758 by Col. Roger 
Morris. Although referred to in common parlance as 
the Morris Mansion, or Jumel Mansion, its distinctive 
honor is that it was occupied by Washington as his 
Headquarters in 1776, and it is therefore more properly 
designated as Washington's Headquarters. 

This fine residence, associated in a peculiarly direct 
and interesting manner with the history of New York, 
during the Revolutionary period, now exists as the only 
structure, both of its kind and period, on the island of 
Manhattan. It has not only escaped the destruction 
which has been the fate of all the fine Colonial resi- 
dences which at the time of its erection were dotted over 



the island, but also, by reason of the good fortune of its 
ownership by persons of taste and patriotism, it has also 
escaped the equally disastrous hand of the " improver." 
It therefore exhibits to-day the same features which 
have for a full century and a half rendered it the most 
conspicuous building of its class in Manhattan, both in 
character, associations, and in its commanding location. 

Its position was so well chosen that to-day, in spite of 
the changes of the locality and the springing up of 
modern dwellings in its neighborhood, it dominates the 
view of the lofty heights from the east and south, and 
forms a striking feature of interest to which the eye is 
led by the curves of the fine avenue and Speedway on 
the east. The large estate of which it once formed the 
centre has been parcelled off in the modern growth of 
the neighborhood, and of the fine, ornamental grounds 
at one time surrounding it only so much remains as is 
included in the area of two city blocks, within which 
the house is centrally and appropriately placed. 

The range of hills on the eastern edge of which the 
building stands, and which is now included in the 
rather vaguely applied title of " Washington Heights," 
was, at the period of the first settlement of Manhattan, 
a favorite haunt and hunting place of the Indians of the 
tribe whose largest village was Nipinisicken, on the 
Riverdale hillside, north of the Spuyten Duyvil creek. 

Those resident on the heights described themselves as 
of the Weckquaskeek, or Birchbark forest, a term indi- 
cative of the character of the wooded hills which ex- 
tended between the great Iroquois (Hudson) river on 
the west and the placid Muscoota (Harlem) on the east, 
and from the Schorakapok or Spouting Spring (Spuyten 
Duyvil) on the north, to the salt marsh which drained 
the plains, afterwards known by the name of Harlem. 



The early settlers of that township, regarding the al- 
most inaccessible heights as so much mere wild woodland, 
set them aside as common lands in which all burghers 
had equal rights of pasturage and forestry. By the end 
of the seventeenth century, however, the line of hills 
had been opened up to access by the completion of a 
postroad. This thoroughfare was begun in 1673, ^^^^ 
probably following an Indian trail, was carried up to 
the summit on the easterly slope, on a steep grade 
which afterwards earned the appropriate title of Break- 
neck Hill. Thence it passed the site of the future 
Morris house, along the present line of Kingsbridge 
road and Broadway, down to the Muscoota marshes, 
swarming with muskrats, and after skirting the river 
came to a point in the Spuyten Duyvil creek at which 
the low tide exposed a shallow spot known as the 
" wading place." 

Attention being thus drawn to the localit)% its culti- 
vable portions were soon coveted by such of the sons of 
the settlers of the lowlands as were unprovided with 
landed property. 

By informal consent of the freeholders of Harlem, 
expressed through their magistrate, constable and clerk, 
an arrangement was made to lease a portion of the 
Heights, at that time referred to as Jochem Pieter's 
Hill and the Long Hill, respectively the portions from 
129th street to about 179th street, and from thence 
north to the line of 200th street. 

This lease was entered into by the son of Kier Walters, 
a Harlem farmer, the young man adopting, as was often 
the Dutch custom, his father's Christian name as his own 
surname and being known to his neighbors as Jan 
Kiersen. 

Kiersen and his father-in-law thus became the lessees 



in 1682, for a term of twelve 3^ears, of a large area of half- 
cleared land known as the Indian Field or Great Maize 
Land, extending south of i8ist street along the hill-top 
probably as far as 165 th street. 

Ere the lease had run its course, the demands of others 
for similar privileges led to an agitation in favor of a 
comprehensive partition of the commonlands, and peti- 
tions were presented to the governing authorities for 
authority to effect this purpose. 

This necessary action being a long process, the 
burghers in 1691 determined on a mutual partition 
among the freeholders by lot, and Kiersen appears to 
have abandoned his lease, and to have stood back to 
see the result of the luck of the town fathers. 

The lead was set by the Schepen or magistrate, Joost 
Oblinus, who drew by lot or favor 22^ morgen of the 
Indian clearing, probably improved by Kiersen's labors, 
at a point just south of i8ist street. 

That portion of the uplands which comprised the site 
of the Morris house, was included in lots numbered 16 
and 18, and fell respectively to the ownership of free- 
holders by name of Holmes and Waldron. 

This partition appears to have been decided on mainly 
for the purpose of providing a means of livelihood to 
the younger members of the Harlem families, for Oblinus 
settled his younger son Hendrick on his allotment, and 
the lot of Holmes and part of that of Waldron were, 
before 1694, acquired by Thomas Teurneur, the son of a 
Harlem magistrate ; he in turn, on July 2, of that year, 
transferred the property to Jan Kiersen, who thus 
became possessed, after eight years of unsettled life, of 
that portion of the coveted uplands which was destined 
to become associated with so much of the future history 
of the locality, as well as of the country at large. 



Moved by a desire to build a house for himself and 
his young family, Kiersen appears to have waited for 
several years in hopes of a confirmation, by authority of 
the Governor, of the partition which formed his title to 
his property. 

But becoming impatient, he in 1700 procured a deed 
of consent by the freeholders which on the 7th of March 
of that year permitted him to "take a half-morgen of 
land from the common woods, on which to have a house 
and barn and garden," but stipulating that he should 
leave the space for a suitable road as the King's Way 
between his house and the lot of Samuel Waldron. Fur- 
ther efforts were made to move the government to action 
by petition in 1709, but, it was not until 1712 that 
Governor Richard Dongan issued that authorization of 
the partition which had been so long desired by the 
short-sighted and land-hungry settlers. The decree or 
charter, ignoring previous action, provided for a draw- 
ing of the land by lot, a process carried out by the then 
existing freeholders in a spirit of mutual consideration 
for the semi-established rights of the squatters tenures. 

Previous to this date, in fact before 1707 when the line 
of the post-road was surveyed, Kiersen and young 
Oblinus had each built a house upon his land, and the 
survey recites that after passing the half-way house the 
roadway ran about north to the hollow, now Manhat- 
tanville, ''from thence to Barent Meyer's northeast, and 
thence to the run by Barent Waldron's north north- 
east ; from thence along the fence, and so by John 
Kierse's house on the right-hand." The precise position 
was probably at 165th street on the east side of the 
Kingsbridge Road. 

Time passed on, and during the succeeding half cent- 
ury the families occupying the Heights gradually brought 



II 



more of its rocky and precipitous surface under some 
form of cultivation ; but it is noticeable that whereas 
those families which were settled in the marshy low- 
lands of the Muscoota and Harlem Plain remained 
longer in possession, the settlers on the unremunerative 
st.il forming the uplands began about the period of the 
Revolution to part with their holdings, and have since 
that time scattered to other districts, so that their de- 
scendants are now rarely to be found in the neighbor- 
hood. Thus, in 1769, Oblinus sold a dwelling and 100 
acres of his land at i8ist street to Blazius Moore, the 
tobacco merchant, for the sum of j^gsj, los. The Cornel- 
issens sold property north of Holyrood church to the 
Kortrights of Harlem. Abraham Meyer offered 8 
acres of woodland in that locality for sale in 1768. The 
Bussings sold land in that section to John Bernard 
Bauer of Frankfort, Germany. Kiersen's heirs, having 
sold part of a property at Inwood in 1756, appear to 
have sold the site of the Morris House to Roger Morris 
also in 1756, and a large part of the remainder to James 
Carroll in 1763. The price paid for this latter large 
property was but ;^i,ooo.* 



^Kiersen's holdings amounted in all to about 90 acres, and he had 
also acquired from Waldron, as early as 1703, a piece of salt marsh, 
that coveted possession of a Dutch farmer, being part of the lowlands 
of Inwood. 

His family consisted of two sons, John and Abraham, and a 
daughter, Jannetje, who married Jacob Dyckman and became the 
ancestress of that well-known Inwood family. 

The date of the decease of Jan Kiersen is not clear, but after 
becoming deacon, town collector and constable, he lived to a great 
age — possibly until 1749, when he would have been about 99 years 
old. Of the conveyance by which Roger Morris became siezed of the 
site of the residence which he began to erect in 1756, no history gives 
details ; it may be that owing to the fortune of war the deed was 
removed to England. But Riker says that Morris acquired title 
from Carroll, whose deed was dated Jan. 29, 1763, several years after 
the Morris house was built. 



II. 

THE MORRIS MANSION, 1756-1776. 

By the middle of the eighteenth century the traffic 
along the post road had so increased that the beauties 
of the situation engaged the attention of some of the 
wealthier class of travelers, who stopped for rest or re- 
freshment at the Blue Bell Tavern, which the Oblinus 
family had established at i8ist street, or at one or other 
of the farmhouses between that point and the low levels 
north and south. 

Among these observers were two young British offi- 
cers holding commissions in the Colonial service, John 
Maunsell and Roger Morris, who both became the pur- 
chasers of land, the former about 147th street on the 
west side of the line of Amsterdam avenue, and the 
latter of Carroll's purchase. 

Colonel Maunsell erected a large dwelling on his 
property, which he sold at some date previous to 1776 
to a wealthy West Indian, Charles Aitken of St. Croix. 
To this building came refugees from Harlem on the 
occupation of that town by the British troops in 1776*. 
and it became a divisional headquarters to General 
Spencer, commanding the American forces engaged in 
throwing up the line of defensive earthworks across the 
heights at 147th street. 

Roger Morris was the third son of Charles Morris of 
the Manor house, Wandsworth, a village now forming 
*Johnstone, Battle of Harlem Heights. 

13 



part of the southwest postal district of London, in the 
County of Surrey. His mother was Sarah, nee Haldi- 
mand, and his birth took place Jan. 28, 1727. He ob- 
tained a commission in the British army and was ordered 
to the American colonies, where he soon rose in rank by 
his meritorious service. As a young major he was ap- 
pointed to the staff of General Braddock during the 
French and Indian War. In this service he was asso- 
ciated with George Washington, their acquaintance con- 
tinuing until their lots were cast on opposite sides in 
the great struggle for American Independence. 

In 1756 he became acquainted with the family of 
Frederick Philipse, second lord of Philipse Manor, and 
visited them at their Manor House* in Philipsburg, now 
Yonkers, N. Y. The intimacy thus begun culminated 
in his engagement to marry Mary,toneof the daughters 
of the lord of the Manor. 



*This interesting building, erected in 1682, is stiil standing and is 
one of the most ancient and picturesque antiquities of the State of 
New York. It is at present used as a City Hall. The American 
Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, in co-operation with the 
Manor Hall Association of Yonkers and the Yonkers Historical 
Society, has introduced a bill in the present Legislature (1903) for 
the purchase of the building by the State and its committal to the 
custody of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society. 

fMary Philipse was celebrated for her beauty and was, besides, 
heiress to a portion of the manorial estate, the entail of which had 
been at that time broken by legal procedure, and had been divided 
among the heirs. Her portion comprised some fiftv thousand acres 
of land in the counties of Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam. A 
romantic story woven by the process of imaginative growth, has 
been long extant, and has frequently found a record in print, to the 
effect that Col. George Washington was a rival for the hand of Miss 
Mary, and that he was cut out by his companion in arms. No 
foundation exists for this interesting romance, although it is true that 
Washington met the young lady when she was visiting in the High- 
lands at the home of her sister Susanna, wife of Col. Beverly 
Robinson, another Virginian ofScer. But at this time the attentions 
of the future general were devoted to another lady, and Mary Philipse 
was probably already engaged to Morris. 



14 



Evidently in anticipation of their marriage, Morris in 
1756, purchased a portion of the Kiersen estate, on the 
Heights, and commenced that year, the erection on 
the advantageous and commanding site which it afford- 
ed, of the pretentious mansion, well calculated to be- 
come the home of a lady of a family which held its head 
so particularly high as did that of Philipse. On the 
keystone of an arch in its main hall he caused to be 
carved the date of its completion, 1758. The date co- 
incided with that of his marriage, which took place at 
Philipsburg Manor, and at which he settled upon his 
wife the estate and mansion, by which means it became 
her absolute personal property. 

Resuming his military duties, the young officer found 
active service awaiting him in the campaign against the 
French. At the action of Fort Du Quesne in 1758 he 
received a wound from which he recovered sufficiently to 
be present at the taking of Quebec, in September, 1759. In 
the intervals of less active military service that succeed- 
ed this date, Major Morris no doubt spent much time in 
the charming residence overlooking the Harlem Valley, 
and the attractions of his home ere long decided him to 
abandon the unsettled life of a soldier, and to resign his 
commission. This he did in 1764, at the age of 37, re- 
ceiving on retirement the brevet rank of Lieutenant- 
Colonel. His son Amherst w^as born in 1763, and three 
other children, Henry Gage Beverly, Joanna and Maria, 
formed the little family circle in the peaceful home, of 
which the fortune of civil war was ere long destined to 
deprive them. 

The social position of Roger and Mary Morris was of 
sufficient importance to engage the acquaintance of 
many prominent personages, and, in addition to their 
purely social visitors, they entertained notables so widely 

15 



differing in opinion and characteristics as Benjamin 
Franklin and Sir William Tryon. 

A man of such position, whose military service to the 
Colonies had been so meritorious, was not likely to be 
left long without engagement in public affairs, and Col. 
Morris was soon appointed a member of the King's 
Council and took a prominent part in the affairs of the 
Colony. 

In the troublous period, therefore, which soon succeed- 
ed, when friends and even families were hopelessly di- 
vided on the principles involved in the Revolution, 
Morris' views placed him on the side of that authority 
to which his birth, his military associations and his pub- 
lic office directed him. 

His official position marked him out for active interest 
in public matters, and the rapid drift of affairs into a 
war-like state, which soon forced those possessed of 
military knowledge to take an active part, caused his re- 
entry into the British military service. He removed his 
family to a place of security, and his handsome home was 
left in the care of servants, at the time when the British 
and American forces were concentrating in New York 
for the struggle over its possession and defence. 



% 



i6 



III. 

WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, 1776. 

Early in the momentous year 1776, the American 
officers engaged in the work of surveying and locating 
available positions of defence, were at the Morris house, 
the commanding position of which, seen from the val- 
ley below, attracted the attention of Generals Greene, 
Heath, Putnam and Knox, and on their visits the de- 
fenses of the heights were outlined, which afterwards 
extended in the neighborhood of the mansion. Inspec- 
tions of the locality were afterwards made by Washing- 
ton, and there can be no doubt that it was his observa- 
tions on these occasions which caused him, on the retire- 
ment of the army from New York, and its failure to 
arrest the advance of the British and Hessian forces 
from Kip's Bay, to select his old comrade's house as his 
headquarters, into the occupation of which he enter- 
ed on September 15, 1776. 

During the succeeding critical period until November 
2ist, when the last official order dated therein was issued, 
the house was the centre of American interest and of its 
military authority, and in the quiet of its rooms were 
transacted affairs of the greatest moment, not only to the 
forces then engaged, but bearing upon the composition 
of the regular Continental Army at that time in embryo. 
Camped around the heights were about 8,000 men 
brought together as volunteers, short service militia, 

17 



short time levies, all raw, inexperieneed, and held to- 
gether only by the bond of a common principle and the 
influence of a common enthusiasm. These had to be 
drilled, taught, disciplined and given experience in fac- 
ing an enemy, and at the same time precautions were 
not to be neglected for safe-guarding the wider interests 
of the country at large. Therefore the parlors of the 
house became the theatre in which were to be met dur- 
ing the period most of the military leaders and many of 
the representative men of civil life. Here was held that 
well-known audience at which the Stockbridge Indian 
Sachems attended to express their sympathies.* Here 
were decided many of the arrangements for the gal- 
lant work done in defending the Heights, in blocking 
the Hudson at Jeffrey's Hook and in the desperate 
attacks on the British frigates.f Hence was issued a 
remarkable series of general orders on the conduct in 
camp of an army,]; and here was carried on that in- 
teresting correspondence of the general's aide Tench 
Tilghman, with William Duer of the Secret Committee 
of Safety. 

Several references to a building known as the "White- 
House," near headquarters, lead to the supposition that 
the building referred to was on the old estate of Kier- 
sen, and was located on the high road at the point 
where afterwards the Cross Keys Tavern was estab- 
lished, at 165th street and the Post road. 

The barns of the mansion were also located some 
little distance to the north, and judging by the British 
military map and by the location of similar buildings in 
the survey of 1810, they were approximately on the line 



* Mines, p. 230. 

f Force's American Archives. 

i Ditto, v., 4th series. 



18 



of 165th street, near Edgecomb avenue. These were the 
buildings within which were stabled the mounts of the 
commander and his aides, and which were afterwards 
used as a temporary prison for the officers captured on 
November 16 by the British. 

The approach to the mansion was from a point on the 
Post road about parallel with its southern frontage, 
which is now covered by a curious collection of frame 
dwellings known as Sylvan Place. On either side of the 
driveway were ranged rough wooden huts of the troops 
quartered close to the headquarters. Westward from 
the high road and a little north of the entrance gates 
was extended a line of earthworks, known in the scheme 
of defence of the heights as No. 3 line. 

On the withdrawal of the American army to the north 
in order to escape the trap set by Howe's encircling 
operation in Westchester county, the Headquarters Man- 
sion was left in the possession of Colonel Robert Ma- 
gaw, who was detailed as post-commander with a 
garrison of about 2,600 men. After the engagements at 
Pell's Point and White Plains, the British and Hessian 
forces were concentrated around Washington Heights 
and on [Nov. 15 its surrender was demanded and re- 
fused. On Nov. 16 a grand assault was directed on the 
position by four columns, north, south, and two acting 
from the east. Just at the commencement of the action 
Washington, accompaned by Greene, Mercer and Israel 
Putnam, arrived at the Morris house for the purpose of 
observation, but finding the forces on both sides fully 
engaged, were unable to effect any re-arrangement, and 
retired just in time to avert a capture, which would, had 
it occurred, have practically decided the Revolution 
adversely to the patriotic cause. 

The Morris house now became the center of military 

iq 



jr.xez 



s^ 




jKieo' 



St. 



SITE OF PRO 




OSEJ) PARK 



operations from the south and east. The lines of de- 
fences to the south extended across the heights at three 
points. The first or advanced line was between 147th 
and 148th streets ; the second was at 153d and 155th 
streets ; and the third, alread}^ described, and at that 
time still in an incomplete condition, commenced at the 
present junction of Amsterdam avenue and St, Nicholas 
avenue and extended east between i6ist and 1626. 
streets to Broadway, thence in a zig-zag form across 
Fort Washington avenue, and round the hill where the 
Boulevard Lafayette turns westward from 158th street. 

On the advance line was posted a force of about 800 
men, under Lt.-Colonel Lambert Cadwalader, command- 
ing the 3d Pennsylvania battalion, a detachment of no 
men of the Connecticut " Congress's Own " Rangers, 
acting as scouts and marksmen, and a company of 
militia brought up during the engagement. 

The anticipation of an attack had brought the little 
American force of defence early to their stations, and a 
group of officers was observing the movements of the 
British forces from the lofty land near the Headquarters 
house, when between 7 and 8 o'clock the first shot was 
fired, directed at them from the field battery across the 
Harlem river. The projectile fell short only by a few 
yards, and its firing was the signal for the opening of a 
fierce artillery attack upon the eastern flank of the hillside 
as far north as the present Fort George. 

In rather leisurely style the southerly division of 
attack advanced in two columns, one from Harlem and 
the other from Bloomingdale, arriving at Manhattan- 
ville about 10 A. M., and overwhelming the advanced 
outposts in little breastworks on the southerly edge of 
the heights. Driving in the pickets, the British division 
advanced along the line of the Post road, and the Hessian 



brigade came up the westerly side, both advancing upon 
the line of earthworks, where a bloody resistance would 
undoubtedly have been met but for an occurrence which 
placed the American forces in a position of great disad- 
vantage. 

The American generals had but just observed the 
condition of the southern defence, and had found no 
particular means by which it could be bettered, when 
word was hastily brought to the Headquarters and 
passed on to Cadwalader of the embarkment of a regi- 
ment on the Morrisania side of the Harlem, and its evi- 
dent intention to land upon the east of the Morris House 
and to take the defending force in the rear. Detaching 
a little half company under acting Major David Lennox, 
from his own regiment, with orders to hold this new 
danger in check, Cadwalader retired his force to the 
second line of defences at 155th street, where he would 
have a better opportunity to withdraw if the attack in 
the rear succeeded. 

The force proved to be the well-known 426. Regiment 
of Highlanders, 800 strong, under the command of their 
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Thomas Stirling. Their boats, 
rowed by men of the Royal Navy, started from a little 
creek in the line of 173d street, the mouth of which is still 
to be traced at low tide. The Highlanders landed, prob- 
ably in two parts or divisions, at similar marshy recesses 
on the Manhattan shore at 173d and 165th streets. 

They met a fierce resistance from the handful of 
opponents, who, perched on the rocks and behind the 
trees of Speedway Park, poured a deadly fire into the 
boats, killing and wounding 90 men, nearly double their 
own number. The very ground up which the gallant 
Scotsmen charged against their brave opponents may 
still be examined in its natural condition ; and the con- 

23 



tour leads to the conclusion that it was up the gorge 
which extended on the north side of the property of 
Colonel Morris that this bloody fight took place. An- 
other company was brought up to Lennox's assistance 
but many more would have been necessary to stay the 
swarming Highlanders, who forced their way to the 
summit, and, sweeping around their opponents, took a 
number of them prisoners on the space north of the 
Headquarters house, Lennox's own men being pushed 
back to the white house still firing desperately. 

The appearance of the red-coats in the immediate 
vicinity made the necessity apparent for the retreat of 
the forces at 155th street, and they retired towards the 
northwest, receiving and returning the fire of the High- 
landers, who had taken possession of the huts near 1626. 
street. 

The British force advancing came up to the Head- 
quarters and took possession, while the Hessian wing 
pressed forward on the Hudson side and advanced to- 
wards Fort Washington, a desultory fight being kept up 
by Cadwalader's men all the way. 

Meantime some of the most westerly part of the 
American force had been so nearly cut off that some of 
their officers were captured. Among the latter was 
Captain Alexander Graydon, an officer who afterwards 
wrote a detailed personal account of these events. 

It is not necessary here to give the details of the day's 
battle on the other parts of the field. Suffice it to say 
that after one of the most heroic defences in the history 
of the war, Magaw was forced to capitulate to an over- 
whelmingly superior force, and about 4 o'clock the 
British flag was hoisted over the citadel of Fort Wash- 
ington. 



24 



IV. 
BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, 1776-1783 

With the fall of Fort Washington, the Morris Mansion 
became the temporary Headquarters of the British 
Commander-in-Chief, and the permanent Headquarters 
of the commander of the northern defenses of the 
Island. 

In the barn of the Mansion were confined Capt. Gray- 
don and many other officers and men taken captive dur- 
ing the closing hours of the battle of November i6th. 

The barn probably stood some distance to the rear or 
north of the house, and a building is shown on the 
British map of the day's military operations in such a 
position on a mound about on a line of i66th street. 
''It was," says Graydon, "a good, new building," and 
was no doubt that which, during the time of Washing- 
ton's use of the dwelling, had sheltered the mounts of 
himself and of the few aides who possessed such a lux- 
ury. Here a body of one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred prisoners was crowded, a motley group of officers 
and privates, regular and militia, continental and state, 
some in uniform, some without, and some in hunting 
shirts, showing them to be marksmen, the mortal aver- 
sion of the redcoats. Some of the officers were plun- 
dered of their hats, and others of their coats. The offi- 
cer on guard was an ill-looking, low-bred fellow for a 
member " of this dashing corps of light infantry," as 

25 



Graydon describes him and them, and, as his prisoner 
stood near him at the door seeking fresh air, kept 
crowding and hustling the defenseless man until he ex- 
postulated, when, clubbing his fusee to strike his 
prisoner, he exclaimed : " Not a word, sir, or I'll give 
you my butt." 

'* As to see the prisoners was a matter of some curi- 
osity, we were complimented with a continual succession 
of visitors, chiefly officers of the British Army,'^ some of 
whom were present when, later in the day, a Sergeant 
Major came to take formal account of those captured. 
This may be assumed to have been during the time when 
the advance of the British awaited the result of the Hes- 
sian attack then proceeding on the north,and when officers 
would be coming and going between the front and 
headquarters. 

As the Sergeant sat with his pen in his hand and his 
paper on his knee, he applied to each officer in turn for 
a description of his rank, without actual insolence, but, as 
his one-time prisoner records, with '' that animated dega- 
gee impudence which belongs to a self-complacent non- 
commissioned officer of the most arrogant army in the 
world." 

A little, squat militia officer, from York County,Penn., 
who had lost his three-cornered beaver, and had re- 
ceived in exchange only the crown of a dirty old hat, 
when asked his rank, gruffly exclaimed, " I am a kep- 
pun," at which a general laugh ensued at his expense, 
putting both captors and captured in a better humor. 

It was a seasonably cool November day, " yet from 
the number of men crowded into the barn, the air 
within became oppressive and suffocating," a foretaste 
for many a poor fellow of what he was to endure, later 
on, in the crowded prisons of New York. 

26 



The excitements of the day, and the lack of air, pro- 
duced in the prisoners an excessive thirst, '' and there 
was a continual cry for water," to which the soldiers on 
guard appear to have humanely responded, bringing 
water in a bucket continually. But though those " who 
were about the door did well enough, the supply was 
very inadequate to such a number of mouths, and many 
must have suffered much." 

The sounds of cannonading and musketry ceased in 
the afternoon, and as the early dusk shrouded the scene, 
the tramp of the guard was heard and the prisoners taken 
at Fort Washington came down the postroad and passed 
the Headquarters House on their way to death in the 
city. The prisoners in the barn were sent forward, 
though one detachment was kept at a farm house for 
three days and reached the city in a starving condition. 

The change of ownership of the Heights, which suc- 
ceeded, on the evening of the i6th of November, 1776, 
was at no point more distinctly pronounced than within 
the walls of the erstwhile home of Roger Morris. The 
rooms which had for weeks sheltered Washington, and 
the walls which had echoed the anxious consultations of 
the patriot officers, received their very antitheses in the 
forms of the ennobled and haughty officers of the staff 
of Lieutenant-General Baron Wilhelm von Knyphausen, 
whose blue and gold uniforms must have presented the 
strongest contrasts to the worn and faded habiliments 
of their predecessors in occupation. While the most 
recent occupant. Colonel Magaw, and his aides, were on 
their tedious march to the prisons of New York, the 
commanders of the mercenary troops were making them- 
selves at home in the rooms of the mansion, which was 
for the succeeding years of the struggle to continue to 
be known as " Headquarters." 

27 



As such the building is frequently mentioned in the 
diary kept by Lieutenant Charles Philip von Kraaft, a 
Saxon officer, who refers to troops quartered around it, 
to a redoubt erected below the grounds on the marshy 
shore of the Harlem river, and to the church parades, 
which on Sundays were held in the barn.* 

In their reconnoissance on the Westchester side in 
July, 1781, Washington and Rochambeau, from the West- 
chester side, made a critical examination of the locality 
with their field glasses. This was probably the first 
occasion on which Washington had looked on the scene 
of so much interest to him since the fateful November 
16, 1776. He was destined, however, to visit his old 
Headquarters again in person upon the triumphal entry 
of the Americans in 1783 ; and once again in 1790 in the 
lofty capacity of President of the United States. 



*In 1778 the Mansion bore the name of the Hessian General. Von 
Kraaft refers to it as " what was called General Knipphausen's quar- 
ters, Morris House." In 1781 the house was used as the dwelling of 
the commander of the Donop Musketeer Regiment, Lieutenant- 
Colonel von Hinte. Hither came frequently von Kraaft, then a Free 
Corporal in the Colonel's own company, to report to his commander. 
On the 8th of October of that year there passed the house about 10 
A. M., a cavalcade, the centre of which was the Prince of Wales, 
William Henry, who went to the front to " view the line," making a 
sort of parade excursion into Westchester county with a large force. 

28 



V. 

HOSTELRY AND FARMERS' HOME, 1783-1810. 

In 1779, the general Act of Attainder of loyalists was 
passed, and their properties were declared forfeited. 
Roger Morris was too conspicuous a character to escape 
inclusion, and so it came about that the mansion, to- 
gether with all the landed property of both the husband 
and wife, were promptly put up for sale by the Commis- 
sioners of Forfeiture as soon as the British army was 
withdrawn from the scene. 

It passed into the hands of one owmer after another,, 
being utilized for a year or more as a residence by Dr. 
Isaac Ledyard. The Morris family found refuge in 
England, where the Colonel died in 1794 at the age of 
67. His plate and furniture were dispersed under the 
hammer in New York only the year previous to his 
decease. 

In 1785 the interesting building fell into the occupancy 
of one Talmadge Hall, the proprietor of a line of stages 
from New York to Boston, who turned it into a hostel 
under the high-sounding title of Calumet Hall, and 
utilized it as the first stopping place after leaving this 
city. It is probable that the need arose for such a road 
house at that juncture as in that year Jacob Moore sold 
the Blue Bell Tavern property at iSist street to the 
Bauers, and that famous Inn seems to have gone out of 
use for several years till revived in another building on 
the opposite side of the postroad. Advertisements were 

29 



issued describing the advaatages of the one time home 
of the Morris family, as a resort for social parties 
and for summer visitors and boarders. 

Time passed on, and the building became the home of 
a farmer. On July lo, 1790, it was visited by a memor- 
able party, composed of President George Washington, 
Vice-President John Adams, his lady, and Miss Smith ; 
the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson ; the Secretary 
of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton ; and the Secretary 
of War, Henry Knox, and the ladies of the latter two. 
This company, with whom, we learn from Washington's 
diary of that date, w^ere "all the gentlemen of my 
family, Mrs. Lear and the two children " [the grandson 
and granddaughter,] visited "the old position of Fort 
Washington,"— a visit which must have been full of the 
most interesting memories to the one-time Commander. 
After visiting the fort, the diary says they "dined on a 
dinner prepared by Mr. Mariner at the house lately 
Colonel Morris's, but confiscated and in occupation by 
a Common Farmer." 

To such a modest purpose had the fine residence, once 
the scene of brilliant gatherings of well-known charac- 
ters, and of a wealthy society now descended. But its 
vicissitudes were at this time by no means at an end, 
and its recovery of a state equal to its former grandeur 
was not many years distant. In 1794, on the death of 
Roger Morris, who had recovered some compensation 
from the British Government for his personal losses, his 
widow instituted proceedings to dispute the sale of the 
property under the Act of Attainder, claiming, and, as 
the event proved, both legally and rightfully, that the 
property had been her own, by virtue of prenuptial 
agreement — otherwise her marriage settlement. The 
suit dragged along until 1809, when the lady, being then 

30 



eighty years of age, sold her claims against the Govern- 
ment of the United States in respect to the Morris 
property— and presumably in respect to her own inher- 
itance of 50,000 acres of the Philipsburg Manor — to 
John Jacob Astor for the sum of one hundred thousand 
dollars, and lived to enjoy the income of this modest 
residue of her once vast estate, until the age of ninety- 
six. She died in London on i8th July, 1825, still 
estranged from her native land and from the friends and 
society of her youth. Of her children whose early days 
were spent in the mansion and playing around its spacious 
grounds and woodlands, it is interesting to note that 
Amherst became a Commander of the Royal Navy and 
died without issue April 29, 1802, at the age of 39, while 
his brother Henry, who bore also the name of Gage, after 
the unsuccessful British Commander, and of Beverly 
after that of his uncle Robinson, rose to higher rank as a 
Rear Admiral and left some family, of whom a descen- 
dant not many years ago was domiciled near the home 
of his ancestors. Joanna married Thomas Couper 
Hincks, and the younger sister Maria died unmarried,. 
Sept. 25, 1836. 

The property on which their old home stood, had be- 
fore the closing year of the eighteenth century, passed 
into the possession of one William Kenyon, a merchant 
of the City of New York, who, on August 29, 1799, with 
Abigail, his wife, conveyed several tracts of land with 
the Mansion, for the sum of three thousand pounds, to 
Leonard Parkinson, a wealthy West Indian. Parkinson 
combined his purchases so that eventually he owned all 
the lands from river to river, from about 158th street, 
where the Beekman properties ended, north to those of 
Mrs. Bauer and Jacob Arden, or the old Oblinus south- 
erly line at or near 173rd street. 

31 



In 1809 Parkinson decided to sell his estate and had it 
surveyed and divided into fifteen lots, as shown on a 
map by Charles Loss under date of March i, 1810, of 
which lots Number 8 was that which included the 
*' Mansion House," and its " coach house " at the north. 
It comprised 36 acres, i rood, bounded on the north by a 
strip of property from the postroad east to the river, 
which strip was owned by George Wear, the proprietor 
of the Cross Keys tavern at 165th street. 

The whole Parkinson property was sold under power 
of attorney by Leonard Parkinson, son of the West 
Indian planter, and Number 8 passed on April 28, 
1810, for the consideration of ten thousand dollars, to 
Stephen Jumel, with whose career we now enter the 
second period of interesting associations of which the 
Colonial Mansion was destined to become the scene. 



32 



VI. 
THE STEPHEN JUMEL MANSION, 1810-1865. 

Stephen Jumel was a thriving coffee planter in the 
Island of San Domingo, who, about 1790, was, by the 
insurrection of the inhabitants, forced to flee from the 
island with those other of the French settlers who es- 
caped the massacre. Finding his way to New York, he 
had the good fortune to find awaiting his orders here a 
cargo of coffee which he had shipped to this port just 
before the sinister events occurred from which he so 
narrowly escaped. By the exercise of his abilities, the 
use of the small capital at his disposal soon developed 
into a large business, and Jumel in 1790 was a well- 
known merchant of the city, residing about the northwest 
corner ot 5th avenue and 34th street, in a handsome frame 
house. About the beginning of the nineteenth century 
his wife died, and he married again, a lady whose ro- 
mantic career and undoubtedly remarkable characteris- 
tics left a distinct impress upon the home she inhabited 
until her death, and upon the locality in general. 

Eliza Brown, or Bowen, was a handsome young 
woman, around whose origin some romantic and contra- 
dictory stories have been woven. One story, quoted by 
Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, relates 
that she was the daughter of a Frenchwoman named 
Capet, born at sea on a French frigate ; that by some 
means she was left an orphan at Newport and reared 

33 



there by a Mrs. Thompson. The more nearly correct ac- 
ount is that she was one of the two daughters of John and 
Phoebe Bowen, and was brought up after her father's 
death by her stepfather, Lieutenant Jonathan Clark, of 
Rutland, Mass. She was born April 2d, 1777, though 
even of this fact other variations have appeared. 

Another story as to her early career is to the effect 
that, when only seventeen years of age, she eloped to New 
York with Colonel Peter Croix, a British officer, to whom 
she is said to have been married, afterwards discovering 
when he deserted her and returned to England, that he 
was at the time already a married man. The story has 
one inexplicable feature, viz : what a British colonel was 
doing in Rutland (or in New York, for that matter), 
in the year 1794! Of equally, if not greater lack 
of foundation, are the romances woven around her by 
associating her, as has been done directly in one well- 
known novel, with famous public characters of the day. 
She is made to appear as the nominal Mrs. Croix in 
1788, being then but eleven years of age, and in 1794 as 
the confidante of Hamilton and an ambitious intriguante 
in political affairs. 

Whether the above have any foundation in whole or 
part, she seems to have entered the service of the Jumels 
as housekeeper in their handsome establishment, and 
soon after the death of his wife, Stephen Jumel, then 
about fifty years of age, married Eliza at the Catholic 
Church of St. Peter, Barclay street, April 7, 1804. 

On April 28, 1810, he purchased the Roger Morris 
mansion and fitted it up as his residence, to be, thence- 
forward to our times, locally connected with his name, 
in spite of the superior claim of its previous associa- 
tions. 

The French merchant, a vigorous and courtly man, 

34 



and his wife, a handsome blonde of fine figure and car- 
riage, were admirably suited to one another. 

Madame Jumel, as she always desired to be known, 
was an intelligent and even brilliant woman, and her 
abilities soon made her the centre of much social atten- 
tion. With their adopted niece they kept a hospitably 
open house and entertained lavishly. They counted among 
their guests several foreigners of importance, whose ac- 
quaintance they made when for a time residing in Paris, 
where the lady received considerable admiration and 
attention at the Napoleonic court, and where their style of 
living is said to have somewhat impaired her husband's 
fortune. It is quite as probable that the fortune declined 
with the general state of depression succeeding the long 
wars of the continent in which the merchant's interests 
were involved by trade with France. Jum.el was an 
adherent of the Napoleonic idea, and was said to have 
offered his home on the Heights to that remarkable po- 
tentate at the time of his misfortunes. 

About the year 1815 Jumel discovered in the garden 
of the Tuileries a large number of Egyptian cypress 
trees, which had been presented by the Khedive of Egypt 
to Napoleon, but which, in those troublous times, were 
in danger of neglect. He was permitted to acquire some 
of them, and shipped them to his American home, where 
they were planted around a circular walk surrounding 
an ornamental pond on the southwest corner of the 
grounds. There still remain at this day about fourteen 
of these interesting trees, their position being on vacant 
land at the east side of St. Nicholas avenue, north of 
159th street, still conspicuously visible from the via- 
duct leading up to the Heights at 155th street. 

In 1814, Jumel acquired from Gerardus Post another 
large tract of the Parkinson property being Number 6, 

35 



on the map previously referred to, and abutting on the 
old Oblinus property. In 1815 the merchant entered 
into a deed of settlement of the property comprised in 
lot Number 8, in which his wife Eliza Brown Jumel 
joins, conveying the property to a trustee for the life en- 
joyment of it by the wife, and this was followed in 1825 
by another deed in which the other parties unite, and 
Stephen Jumel relinquishes his own interest in the 
property entirely, and the disposition of it is left to the 
direction of Mrs. Jumel, who is appointed in 1826 attorney 
to manage the affairs of her husband. In January 
1828, Mrs. Jumel directs the conveyance of her property 
to her adopted niece, Mary Jumel Bownes, and May 13 
of same year Miss Bownes conveys the same to a trustee 
for the use and behoof of Mrs. Jumel, who thus again 
becomes mistress of its fortunes. 

Then by a deed poll November 21, 1828, the lady ap- 
points a trustee, and conveys to him the two properties 
for the benefit after her decease of her husband, or in case 
of pre-decease, then of her adopted niece. In 182 1, Mrs. 
Jumel had returned to her home and promptly took steps 
to reduce her establishment to a conformity with the re- 
duction of her husband's circumstances. 

On 24 April, 1821, at an auction sale at the house she 
disposed of the more expensive and elaborate of the 
household collection of paintings and furniture, realizing 
a certain amount of capital which enabled her to live 
quietly until the return of her husband in 1828. 

Aided by his energetic wife in reorganizing his busi- 
ness, Jumel's circumstances became considerably aug- 
mented and he and his wife were enabled to resume 
much of their previous style of existence. In 1832 a 
fatal carriage accident deprived Mrs. Jumel of her 
amiable husband, and she was left to manage the affairs 

36 



of the estate, which she had considerably augmented by 
the acquisition of other parts of the Parkinson property. 

A year later, having revived an old acquaintance with 
Aaron Burr, in connection with some of her investments, 
she was persuaded to marry that remarkable character. 
The impromptu ceremony took place in the mansion be- 
fore the great fireplace in the tea-room, on July 3d, 1833, 
when she was 56 years of age and the widower approach- 
ing four-score. 

The ill-assorted match soon ended in separation and 
for only a few weeks was Burr domiciled in the house in 
which more than half a century before he had, with other 
young patriots, and alas, with the one-time friend whom 
his bullet killed in 1804, received the orders of their 
great commander. 

Burr died in September 1836, just after a suit for 
judicial separation instituted by Mrs. Burr had reached 
a successful conclusion; and after that event she resumed 
the use of the name Jumel. 

In 1852 Mrs. Burr again visited Paris, but from that 
time on to her death in July 16, 1865, she lived quietly 
at the old house, only leaving its roof to visit Saratoga 
each summer, which she did for some years in old- 
fashioned style, driving there in an elaborate equipage. 

After her death a prolonged litigation arose over the 
terms of her will, eventually raising the question of her 
own title to the property, and resulting in a compromise 
with the members of the Jumel family in France, finally 
leading to the sale of the estate in partition. 



37 



VI. 

EARLECLIFF, 1903. AND ITS OWNERS SINCE 1691 

An epitome of the history of the property up to this 
time is contained in the following record of land trans- 
fers, here published for the first time : 

1691. Lots No. 16 and 18, drawn by Holmes & Wal- 

dron. 
1694. Or before. Holmes & Waldron to Thomas 

Teurneur. 
1694. 2 July. Teurneur to Jan Kiersen. 
1700. 7 March. Freeholders of Harlem to Jan 

Kiersen — confirmation. 
1756. John Kiersen, son of above, to Roger Morris. 
1758. Roger Morris on marriage settlement to Mary 

Philipse Morris. 
1776. Seized as headquarters for American army. 
1776-83. Used as headquarters for British army of 

occupation. 
1779. Act of Attainder. 

1783. Sold by Commissioners of Forfeiture. 

1784. Residence of Dr. Isaac Ledyard. 

1785. Talmadge Hall. 

1794. Proceedings by Mrs. Morris to recover from 
U. S. Government. 

1799. William Kenyon, merchant, conveys to Leon- 
ard Parkinson^ 

1809. Morris claim SSvO to^Hf. Aslfif. 

38 



i8io. 28 April. L. Parkinson conveys to Stephen 
Jumel. 

1815. Deed of settlement by Jumel and Eliza Brown 
Jumel to B. Desobry as trustee for Eliza B. 
Jumel. 

1825. Stephen Jumel relinquishes his own interest. 

1828. Jan. I. Trustee conveys the property at direc- 
tion of Eliza B. Jumel to Mary Jumel Bownes. 

1828. May 13. Mary J. Bownes to trustee for use of 
Eliza B. Jumel. 

1828. Nov. I, Deed poll by Eliza B. Jumel to trustee 
for benefit of her husband or niece. 

1865. Eliza Brown Jumel dies, will leaves property 

away from heirs. 

1866. Judgment setting aside the will. 

1865. Heirs convey to Nelson Chase, who had married 

Mary J. Bownes. 
1867 to 1874. Nelson Chase successfully defends 

suits brought by George W. Bowmen claiming 

heir-ship. 
1878. Jumel family sue for share of the estate. 
1880. Claim compromised and deed given by F. H. 

Jumel, Louise Plante and others of i-6th of 

estate to William Inglis Chase, son of Nelson 

and Mary J. Chase. 
1880. Quit claim by William I. Chase to the same 

parties. 

1880. Partition suit between Chase and Jumel fam- 

ilies. 

1881. Partition ordered. 

1882. Nov. 14. Property sold in partition. 

Mansion purchased by William I. Chase. 

The fine old house and its immediate grounds, after 
passing through several hands, finally came into the pos- 

39 



session of Lillie J. Earle, wife of General Ferdinand 
Pinney Earle, on May 17, 1894, and was named by them 
''Earle Cliff." General Earle, on his maternal side, was 
connected with the family of William Morris, a relative 
of the original builder of the mansion, and his possession 
was thus peculiarly appropriate. But still more fortun- 
ately, he and his wife were people of taste and patriotic 
instincts. Both were lineal descendants of those who 
fought to secure American Independence, and in the 
Civil War the General had done his share to preserve 
the unity of the nation which his ancestors had helped 
to establish. They had a keen appreciation of the his- 
torical significance of the old Colonial and Revolutionary 
mansion, and preserved and cherished it as a precious 
heirloom, hoping for the day when the city would take 
it under its care and maintain it as a public monument 
to the memory of the great name of Washington. 
General Earle died in the mansion Jan. 2d, 1903, without 
seeing their mutal desire in this respect fulfilled, but it 
is hoped that ere long the city will secure the Mansion 
from Mrs. Earle, and that thus, in the midst of a beauti- 
ful park, will happily end the vicissitudes of war and 
confiscation, of wealth and poverty, of romance and 
legal tangles, of the old mansion which will hereafter be 
known only as 

Washington's Headquarters. 



40 



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